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FARM FOCUS STEP-BY-STEP SWITCHING GUIDE
Note: You can have multiple browser tabs open at the same time in Farm Focus. If you have the ability, it is recommended to run the program across two screens so that you can view various areas of Farm Focus and multiple farm businesses at one time, or have the Help Centre open to view the demonstration videos while you become familiar with the new software.
THE SWITCHING PROCESS:
1. Go to Farm Focus Website www.farmfocus.co.nz Select the Support tab and click on SWITCH TO FOCUS
Read through the webpage & watch the short videos to familiarise yourself with Farm Focus and the key things you need to know.
Read through the 4 steps to Switch
Book into one of the weekly Webinar sessions if you would like some more information on how Farm Focus works before you switch.
2. Log into Cashmanager RURAL to make sure all transactions are reconciled in Rural run Spring clean
* Contact the RURAL support team if you need help with spring clean errors before you switch.
https://community.crssoftware.co.nz/help-centre
Check that you have the current financial year open in Cashmanager RURAL to ensure the correct information transfers to Farm Focus
* check out our Cashmanager Help Centre about how to open a new financial year:
https://community.crssoftware.co.nz/topic/168/how-do-i- create-a-new-financial-year?_=1628636948016&lang=en-US
3. (OPTIONAL)
Download a pdf. of your Accountants Annual Reports for each year from Cashmanager RURAL to have all your historic information stored safely.
Follow the instructions from the help centre:
https://help.farmfocus.nz/en/articles/4932626
-saving-documents-before-you-switch
2 4. Go back to the Farm Focus Webpage and click to
Switch Now
You can choose to start a Demo so that you can have a look around Farm Focus and get to know the new look and feel before you switch your data across.
Make sure you select the Switch to Focus option and not the New Subscription.
5. Check the boxes to confirm you are the Registrar of the account, your Spring clean is complete, and that all of your transactions in Rural are reconciled.
The transactions do not need to be entered up to today’s date, just as long as any that are included have been reconciled.
You can import your other transactions into Farm Focus to get up to date.
Scroll down to read things you need to know and click to Confirm
* Check in Cashmanager RURAL on the Transactions screen for any unreconciled transactions to ensure all is correct and complete before you switch.
6. Enter your log in details for Cashmanager RURAL
3 7. Select your main farm from the list of available farm
businesses to switch. Switch this one first.
You can switch one farm now and get used to Farm Focus and switch another farm at a later if you like.
8. Choose the type of subscription you want to purchase:
First business (Primary Sub) 1yr Farm Focus plan
$790
Additional farms (Secondary subs) $690 Focus Limited $200 (150 coded lines)
See more on the Pricing Page of our website:
https://www.farmfocus.co.nz/pricing/
9. If you had Enterprises in Cashmanager RURAL, these are now called Management Tags.
Management Tags help you to separate out income and expenses for different businesses that operate under the same GST number.
Read more about Management Tags and select the ones you wish to switch across.
You can skip this step and come back to it in your Settings Screen of Farm Focus.
* Find out more about Management Tags and Cost Tags on our Help Centre:
https://help.farmfocus.nz/en/articles/4718609-cost-tags- management-tags-tutorial
10. Read through the Terms and Conditions and scroll to the bottom to click to Agree
* Our End User Agreement states that we will keep your information in RURAL archived should you need to look back for audit reasons.
4 11. Enter your Billing Details but please note that you
will not be charged until your subscription renewal date
12. Select the data you want to switch across to Farm Focus – we have alerted the options we
recommend.
Which budgets do you want?
Which opening bank account and opening balances?
Which livestock numbers?
Click to Continue once you have made your selections.
13. You are now ready to migrate your data. Click Start Migration
14. Migration is now in progress
Refresh the browser after a couple of minutes to see if the migration is complete. You can also close the browser and come back later.
Migration should take less than 10 minutes for most
farm businesses.
5 15. Migrate another farm if you have multiple
businesses to switch.
You can start the migration process for your next farm while your initial farm migration is still underway.
The Switch is now complete. You will be prompted to go through the Set-up process in Farm Focus to ensure that all your settings are correct your selected information has transferred.
THE SET-UP PROCESS:
16. **OPTIONAL**
Download TeamViewer
TeamViewer will allow access for our Support Team to remotely access your computer and help you through any steps you might need assistance with.
See our Help Centre topic about downloading TeamViewer:
https://help.farmfocus.nz/en/articles/5541875- how-to-install-teamviewer
Or visit www.teamviewer.com/en-us/ to click on the Download button to start the
installation process.
17. Farm Business
This includes basic information about your farm business such as Trading name, entity type and address.
This address will be in your tax invoices and meets IRD regulations for invoicing.
Your effective farm area is important to include for KPI information in your EFS Report and Livestock Trading Report
Enter your information and don’t forget to click
Save
6 18. Users
Invite members of your Trusted Team to have access to your information.
Click Add User, type in the email address and select the Access level you want them to have.
Click to Send Invite.
* The access levels have changed from Cashmanager RURAL and so you will need to re-invite your team.
Recommendations:
Organisation Admin for accountants allows your accountant to map all of their codes, and have full access to the software.
Restricted User for Farm Consultants or Advisors who want to access the Cashflow and Reports and make changes, but not be able to adjust the codes.
Reporting Access for Bankers or staff members allows them to see information but at a Read Only level.
19. Financial
This includes your GST information and balance date.
* You can input the GST basis and frequency from within your GST Report.
Enter your information and click Save.
20. Bank Accounts
The bank accounts you had set up in RURAL will be showing here as Active.
Check that your bank account details are correct. You can add in overdraft limits and interest rates so that these costs calculate automatically in your budgets.
* It is recommended to have direct bank feeds set up. If you don’t already have this set up then you can download the bank feed form within your Bank Account settings. The form will only be available to download if your bank has direct feeds with Farm Focus.
7 21. Tags
Tags were known as Enterprises in
Cashmanager RURAL. Your Tags will be listed under Cost Tags, you can upgrade them to be Management Tags if you haven’t already completed this as part of the migration process.
* Cost Tags track costs only. Management Tags track income AND costs.
22. Connectors
Your Farmlands or Farmsource direct feeds you had set up in RURAL will be active in Farm Focus.
The invoice scanner is new. Click into Invoice Scanner to Connect this for your business. This application will allow you to email your invoices directly into Farm Focus, read the invoices, and auto-populate your lines for coding.
WHAT TO CHECK WHEN YOU FIRST LOG-IN:
23. You can log into Farm Focus anytime at www.farmfocus.nz or use the Login button from our webpage.
24. Use the Dropdown at the top of the screen to switch between farms.
You can have multiple browsers open at
the same time so that you can operate in
several farms at once.
8 25. Click down the side navigation menu
into Settings
26. i) Codes
Your Farm Code list will switch across from RURAL but your Coding Rules and Split Codes do not come with you.
This is a good time to review your code list.
a. Use the chevrons to drop down in your list
b. Select the + icon to add a new category, code or extended code c. Print your code list
d. Click into a Livestock Code to check the new selections for Carcass weight, Payment Delays and Ageing Up
e. Drag and Drop your codes into the order you prefer
f. Click on the three menu dots to see your options about editing,
Print out your Autocoding list from Cashmanager RURAL:
9 deactivating or deleting a code (you
can see your deactivated codes when you check the “Show Inactive Codes”
box
g. Your accountant can map their codes for their General Ledger reports
ii) Coding Rules
Print out your Auto Codes from RURAL.
These will not transfer to Farm Focus due to an improved criteria for coding rules.
Code split rules also don’t migrate. Create new ones and check the GST splits are correct on the IRD website, or with your accountant.
Coding Rules:
27. Livestock
Enter your opening and closing Livestock Values. This will drive your Livestock Adjustments in your EFS report.
Enter your opening and closing Livestock weights to determine the efficiencies of your meat production.
28. Contacts
Other Party in Cashmanager RURAL is now called Contacts.
Go through and delete or deactivate any contacts you don’t use to tidy up the list.
You can update your contacts to include bank account information so that you can send your bill payments from Farm Focus to your online banking.
* The existing Postal Addresses from Cashmanager RURAL might need some updating to comply with IRD Tax Invoice requirements
29. Balancing
Go into your Actuals Tab on your Navigation menu and select Balancing.
Balancing was known as Reconciling in Cashmanager RURAL.
As you code your transactions and
invoices your balancing will automatically
10 match, so there is no more manual
Reconciling.
When you first switch you will need to update your Balancing by clicking on Accept Focus Balances button.
If everything was reconciled up to date before you switch, then it will balance.
* If you have issues with Balancing you can visit our Help Centre for Balancing Troubleshooting:
https://help.farmfocus.nz/en/articles/5257126-balancing- troubleshooting
